


midnight glow

by fruectose



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:20:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24607621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fruectose/pseuds/fruectose
Summary: Jeff is feeling some sort of way.(Written for the prompt: watching fireflies together)
Relationships: Britta Perry/Jeff Winger
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	midnight glow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dearzoemurphy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/gifts).



On an intellectual level, Jeff understood that his life had, in fact, peaked at thirty. On an intellectual level, he understood that somewhere over the years he’d turned in his Italian faucets and collars and cuffs for something far more… primitive, to put it mildly. Would Jeff, ten years ago and at the height of his career (although unbeknownst to him at the time) be caught dead _camping_ in the middle of the woods, much less with a bunch of social outcasts like those in front of him? He found himself thinking about just how drastically his life had changed in a decade.

“Don’t think so hard, you’re going to pull a muscle.”

He looked up as Britta swung her leg over the log he was perched on. She made herself comfortable, her hair catching the warm glow of the campfire. Jeff shrugged his shoulders.

“All my muscles are in a perpetual state of being warmed up. I couldn’t pull one if I tried.” He said and Britta rolled her eyes. “Seriously. You never know when you’re going to have to squeeze in an emergency workout. Best to always be prepared.”

“I was talking about the big one inside your skull.” She told him. “The one you barely ever use.”

“Britta, if you think the brain is a _muscle_ … I think our conversation is over.”

Britta narrowed her eyes at him, and Jeff couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled in his stomach.

“Shut up, Winger.” She pulled a face that Jeff was all too happy to return.

“Uh, shut up, Winger, _duh_.”

“Uh duh- uh, _duh_.” Britta snapped. Then she relaxed. “Okay, we need to stop before it goes out of hand.”

“You’re saying that because you can have the last word.” He told her, but she didn’t deny it.

She looked on ahead at Troy doing _Captain Planet and the Planeteers_ impressions with Abed. To the right, Annie, Duncan and Chang were having a heated debate that looked like it was seconds from blowing up enough for Jeff to have to interfere, but until then, he let himself enjoy the-

“ _Jeff_!” Annie’s voice cut through the air and Jeff sighed. Next to him, he could hear Britta breathe out a small laugh.

“All I ask is to go one day when I’m not dragged into someone else’s lives.” He told her. Britta snorted.

“Yeah, and where would that leave them?” She asked, looking up to meet his eye. “Where would that leave _you_?”

“Down one uninterrupted Ezra Brooks.” Jeff said wistfully. “The dream.”

Britta rolled her eyes and Annie called for Jeff again, this time accompanied with a long complaint on what Chang just said.

“Go on. They need you.” Britta told him.

Jeff thought about that while Duncan gestured wildly to him to go over and help sort out their argument.

“Figure it out.” He told them. Annie looked like he’d just slapped her grandma across the face. Even Chang looked surprised. Immediately, the three of them began arguing about why Jeff had to sort out their fight, and why it had to be Jeff. It went on for long enough that Shirley and the Dean had come out of their tent to pick sides.

Jeff could have sat there, debating why it wasn’t his place to settle every petty disagreement, but that would be feeding into his role, and he didn’t need that on a night so peaceful.

“I’m not arguing about this.” He said. He turned to Britta, who looked like she was biting back a smile.

“Okay.” She said. “The entire study group is going to fall apart.”

“We haven’t been students for years.” Jeff said. “Besides, they don’t all need me. You never needed me.”

Britta shrugged her shoulders. Something about the way she looked took Jeff all the way back to the first time he’d ever seen her.

“That’s different. I’ve never needed anyone.” She said. Jeff snorted.

“You’re still going to tell yourself that, huh?” He asked.

“It’s true!” She argued.

“No, it’s not. You need Annie to help pick out your dresses and you need Abed to explain every movie ever to you, and you need your parents to pay off your debts.”

“No, I _choose_ to let them help me.” Britta said. “Because that’s what friends do. They just find excuses to spend time with each other. What do you think I depended on when I lived in New York?”

Jeff looked over his shoulder, at how the rest of their friends were all now sucked into the argument about whether Jeff should be involved in other people’s debates. There was them, and there was Jeff, Britta and the campfire light, and not much more.

“I can’t believe this entire thing began only because you just wouldn’t put out when I first met you.” He told her. Britta laughed.

“You’ve got a lot to thank me for.” She said. Jeff didn’t think she knew just how right she was.

“Do you think it’s weird that we’ve been close to getting married… three times now?” Jeff asked her. Britta shrugged.

“Knowing us, the miracle is that we haven’t followed through.” She told him, judging his shoulder softly with hers. “I’m glad, you know?”

“Yeah, about what?”

“That you tried so hard… for me.”

“You were hot five years ago. And I was horny.”

“Now I’m ugly and you’re too old for a boner.” Britta agreed. “But at least we have this.” She gestured between the two of them. “Men are usually put off by me…”

Jeff laughed. “You? Why ever so?” He asked, earning another shove.

“You make things so difficult!” Britta complained but Jeff could tell she was trying not to smile. “Anyway, I think having you in my life has been really good for me.”

Jeff didn’t expect to feel his throat close up with emotion, and, now that it had, he didn’t really know how to proceed. He’d always had a soft spot for Britta, in a way he couldn’t quite explain. There was something about how she’d been the one to really start it all, something about how she made him want to be better, about the way that no matter how bad she was at psychology, she always saw through him. He didn’t think much would come from those feelings, anyway. Britta liked weird hippies and activists with nothing to offer. Jeff was… well, Jeff was a disgraced lawyer turned underpaid community college teacher. He wondered if maybe he’d turned out to be Britta’s type, after all.

“Oh my god, look!” Britta said, voice hushed and drawing him out of his thoughts.

In front of them was a single fly, its little bum lit up against the dark night. Then he noticed another, and another. Slowly, more fireflies began to glow around them, flickering around them. Jeff watched as one settled delicately on Britta’s hair. She was too busy watching the others to notice. He found that he couldn’t pull his eyes away.

It was stupid to be so mesmerized by her. He’d seen her almost every day for five years. He already knew the way her blonde hair curled up at the ends, and how her eyes sparkled when she got angry. Even with his eyes closed he could accurately describe the pink of her lips and the curve of her nose and the angle of her jaw. She was beautiful in a way he couldn’t quite accept.

The night sky and the warmth of the flames and the fireflies around them put Jeff in a funny mood. Britta had been the beginning, he thought. It felt only right that she was the end.

“What are you staring at?” She asked him, a funny expression on her face. He could still hear their friend arguing, completely oblivious to the fireflies. Completely oblivious to this moment, the one moment Jeff got, alone, with Britta. A warmth no campfire could ever compete with filled up in his heart and his chest ached with the sudden swell of emotion he felt for the woman in front of him.

“Oh. Nothing.” Jeff said with a small smile. “Nothing at all.”


End file.
